January/February 2017

NSPE Today
DiscoverE Dreams Big for Engineers Week

This year, kids and adults will be able to experience National Engineers Week like never before—in IMAX. The new film Dream Big: Engineering Our World is opening for Engineers Week, February 19–25, in science centers and museums across the country.

The MacGillivray Freeman film, the title of which has also been adopted as the theme for 2017 Engineers Week, is set to open on close to 40 screens from coast to coast, with DiscoverE organizing outreach campaigns and events with the science centers and museums. “That outreach comes with a lot of new hands-on activities and event ideas,” says DiscoverE Executive Director Leslie Collins.

One of the new campaigns is called Girls Night Out. Since Dream Big will introduce audiences to three female engineers and potential role models for young girls, Girls Night Out will combine a screening of the film with face-to-face time with women engineers and engineering students and hands-on activities. Whether it’s Girls Night Out or Engineers Week, however, there are more than 65 Dream Big activities designed for volunteers to show students the excitement of engineering.

DiscoverE will also be celebrating 25 years of Future City this year at the competition’s national finals held February 21 in Washington, DC. The celebration details are still being worked out, but whatever happens, people around the country will be able to watch the first-ever livestream of the competition finals.

Discover Engineering Family Day also continues in 2017, at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC on February 18. NSPE will be there with its own hands-on activities for kids of all ages. And Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day will take place again on February 23.

“Any accomplishment or any engineering achievement, whether it’s something gigantic or something very small, starts with a dream,” Collins says. “We want to encourage kids to really dream big, to look around them and see what the problems are and what needs to be fixed and that engineering is one way they can really make a contribution. And we hope it’s inspirational to the engineering community.”